jarkko wrote:We all know that Leonard was born on September 21, 1934.
Thursday September 21, 2017 will be the first birthday without the Master.

This is our birthday thread for your thoughts, feelings, memories...

Thank you, dear Jarkko. The whole morning I already thought about what to do, how to honour him. It feels so wrong not to write Happy Birthday and secretly hoping, that he would read my posting.

And I know we must be grateful and still, I am so sad.

World has become a cold and lonely place without you, Leonard Cohen, and knowing, that you never again will look over your audience and with gorgeous, dry humor say "cheerfulness kept peaking through" or "I'm just a kid with a crazy dream" is hard to understand.

Happy Birthday, wherever you are, and know that we are so many, who will neither forget nor stop missing you.

holydove wrote:I am struck by the fact that this year, Leonard's birthday falls on the first day of Rosh Hashanah - the jewish "head of the year" (it's a different day every year, because it's based on a lunar calendar, & it consists of 2 days). As everyone knows, the song "Who By Fire" is based on a prayer said on Rosh Hashanah, called the Unatanneh Tokef, & the opening line of this prayer is:

"Let us proclaim the mighty holiness of this day, for it is awe-inspiring..."

Rosh Hashannah commemorates the creation of Adam & Eve, the first human being (they were originally one androgenous person). Kabbalah teaches that Rosh Hashannah, as an aspect of sacred time, is a gateway for a burst of new light & life-force to come into the world.

So, though I endlessly mourn Leonard's passing from this world, I also celebrate the creation of such a beautiful & magnificent human being, & I commemorate the day of his birth as a mighty holy day, & I honor the infinite, powerful light which he brought into the world & which I believe goes on forever & ever; like his nightingale, he is singing somewhere still, & wherever he is, may his universe be filled with eternal goodness & sweetness.

... As always at this day of the year
my little Butterfly comes to you wherever you are
to whisper Happy Birthday and Thank You for everything
miss you so much my dearest Friend Leonard Cohen xxx
Susanne

thinking of leonard most of the time, but even more so right now. i can't address this to him personally, because there's no way he could read it, and regretfully, i am not psychologically weak enough to need to fool myself. "may everyone live, and may everyone die, hello my love, and my love - goodbye."
passport.jpg

Good point Geoffrey, I see almost daily people on Facebook wishing their parents (or friends) Happy Birthday and the poor souls have long passed on. So really not sure "Happy" is the right word......other than that, how will they manage to read Facebook?

Anytime am I missing Leonard, I have albums, CD's and DVD's to play and watch to remember him by.

I guess it all started for me sometime around Christmas 1967 and now, goodness me, it's.........2017 and fifty years later.No one ever listens to me. I might as well be a Leonard Cohen record.Neil from The Young Ones

The songs of the late Leonard Cohen have always accompanied me since the release of the first album when I was 16 years old.
What a joy was to see and hear him at the concerts from the first I saw June 2008 in Rome to the last I saw at the end of July in Brussels 2013.
The last year was full of sadness and tears and endless hearing of the last album perhaps the greatest of them all. The songs spoke so much to my heart and I felt a great closeness to the Jewish motifs, including the wonderful cantor and chorus singing and all the songs captured my heart.
The disc was released on Succot on the day they read in the synagogue the last Ecclesiastes - Koheleth that King Solomon wrote in his adult days. I knew that with Leonard nothing was coincidental, but I hoped that this was the first chapter of his last work, and there would be other chapters, I am still waiting for chapters that Adam Cohen might publish.
Today is Rosh Hashana and the first birthday without Leonard so sad.
In nine days, Yom Kippur will be heard in the synagogue Netaneh Tokef the inspiration for "who by fire"
In the new attachment the singer says towards the end
"78 years ago, Leonard Cohen, the five-year-old boy, was in the Yom Kippur service at the Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in Montreal, the synagogue built by his grandfather. He stood and heard the words of the prayer of 'Netaneh Tokef' - and the impression was apparently great. Later, after visiting here during the Yom Kippur War, he gave his version of the words of Rabbi Amnon of Mainz. "
The work of Leonard Cohen The wonderful, modest, generous, full of warmth man (I met him) will continue to live and hear in the world. Thanks for winning you and your work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m3dblzfUpw